Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 7, July 2003

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Making Way for the Monorail

By JAMES BUSH and CLAYTON PARK

The neat row of storefronts stretching south down 15th Avenue Northwest from the NW 85th Street intersection look untouched by time.

Most of the Crown Hill neighborhood merchants in that half-block stretch have been there more than a decade, many much longer, says Pauline Metcalfe, owner of A Perfect Fit, a clothing alteration and design shop at 8329 15th Ave. NW. She and her neighbors are concerned by the news that the southwest corner of the intersection is considered the most likely site for the northernmost station on the Seattle Monorail green line. "We feel like we're in limbo here, absolutely in limbo," she says.

Metcalfe says the Seattle Monorail Project has done a poor job of communicating with businesses they might potentially displace. "If they're making decisions, they aren't telling us about them," she says. "They just feel we're collateral damage for the monorail."

Metcalfe's displacement concerns seem well-founded, based on the alternatives currently being studied for the monorail project Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

Paul Bergman, Seattle Monorail Project communications manager, says the SW corner station site and an alignment which would place the monorail on the west side of 15th were part of the "preferred alignment" identified in the EIS.

The preferred alignment label was created because monorail engineers have studied the corridor and felt they should give extra consideration to the alignment which seems to make the most sense, says Bergman. "It seemed kind of ridiculous for us not to have an opinion about something."

He adds that, at the same time the preferred alignment was designated, the Monorail Board approved a policy adopting relocation assistance policies identical to the ones used by the state of Washington.

Current plans call for the construction of three monorail stations in North Seattle along 15th Avenue NW, all most likely on the west side of 15th: two in Ballard that would be located at Market Street and at NW 15th Street; and one in Crown Hill at NW 85th Street.

Bergman says the project is committed to making sure that property owners who would be displaced by the monorail stations are fairly compensated for any property that must be purchased and that relocation assistance is available "to try to minimize the disruption."

But to businesses, the sudden appearance of a preferred alternative makes this bullet train seem more like a steamroller.

"We're all little people here," says Dan O'Brian, co-owner of Crown Hill Stamp & Coin, located for the past 29 years at 8343 15th Ave. NW. "If the city throws you out, there's not much you can do."

Anne Marie Kriedler, owner of Excel Plaza, a three-story retail/office building that was completed only two years ago at NW 65th Street and 15th Avenue NW, admits "It would be sad" to see it torn down to make way for a monorail station, but she remains supportive of the idea of building a monorail system to alleviate the region's chronic traffic woes.

Kreidler said her understanding is that nothing has been decided for sure at this point, although she adds that the Seattle Monorail Project is "looking at my property very seriously. They would also take Walt's Muffler and the submarine sandwich shop (next door) the whole side of the block."

Excel Plaza's tenants include a Quizno's sandwhich shop and a Toshi's Teriyaki restaurant on the ground floor, the offices for a company called Mpower Media on the third floor, and the Ballard offices for Excel Properties, a real estate company owned by Kreidler that occupies the second floor.

Kreidler said she has been assured by the City that any tenants who would be displaced by the monorail station would receive relocation assistance.

Even if the block where her building is located gets chosen as the site for a monorail station, Kreidler said she has been told construction of the station wouldn't begin for at least four years.

That's about the same time she plans to begin construction of a new multi-story, mixed-use building that would be located across the street, on the site of the Zesto's restaurant, the popular Ballard eatery she bought two years ago. She plans to eventually move her Excel Properties real estate office to the new building, which would include a remodeled Zesto's restaurant on the ground floor.

Residents near the proposed monorail station at Market Street and 15th Avenue NW said at a recent workshop that they consider the area surrounding that intersection to be lacking in the pedestrian-friendly scale that characterizes much of the rest of Ballard, according to Brent McMillan, a member of the Ballard District Council's transportation committee, who attended the gathering. "They see the station as an opportunity to define the character of this area," he wrote in an e-mail report. "They hope this will be an opportunity to create safer crossings for pedestrians." He noted that the intersection is already an active bus station and is considered a "gateway into Ballard."

In the Crown Hill neighborhood, a second alternative station site is also being studied, which would place the station in the middle of 15th about two blocks south of NW 85th Street. Neighbors have also requested that an alternative site north of the intersection be included, although monorail engineers have expressed doubts about its feasibility (based on the assumption that the monorail will someday be extended to Northgate and the track will need to continue around the curve onto Holman Road).

If legitimate station site alternatives aren't being considered, that's a problem for Marianne Scholl, president of the 15th Ave NW Association. Her group was formed three years ago around proposals for a 15th Avenue multi-modal transportation project, then was forced into the monorail review business when voters approved the plan last fall.

Stoll says many neighbors are concerned that placing a station right at the NW 85th Street intersection would worsen an already bad traffic situation. "I don't know what the best site is," she says. "But I would like more information and to have it be studied."

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For more information, call Paul Bergman of the Seattle Monorail Project at 587-1765 or Marianne Scholl of the 15th Ave. NW Association at 706-0650.